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Immutable distro blendOS 3 is already in the works and promises several new exciting features for fans of immutable distros, such as support for more Linux distros and an innovative approach to system updates without using package repositories.
Earlier this year, I took a first look at blendOS as another immutable Linux distro based on Arch Linux that promised to offer a blend of Arch Linux, Fedora Linux, and Ubuntu systems as containers that are automatically created on demand using Distrobox/Podman.
blendOS 2 arrived a few months later with out-of-the-box support for Android apps using WayDroid and two flavors featuring the GNOME and KDE Plasma desktop environments. Now, the developer, Rudra Saraswat, is working on blendOS 3, which looks to bring even more goodies for immutable distro fans.
One of the biggest changes in blendOS 3 is a new approach to performing system updates without using a package repository. Starting with blendOS 3 onwards, existing blendOS installations will be updated using the latest ISO image rather than downloading individual packages from a repository for better stability.
On top of that, blendOS 3 comes with a new tool called Akshara that will let users install custom packages to an overlay, which will be kept and regenerated using the new system base so that your blendOS installation remains untouched as it is expected from an immutable distro.
Moreover, if you worry about large download sizes during updates, the zsync file transfer program will be used in blendOS 3 and later versions to greatly reduce the size of updates by only downloading the changes between the previous and the current release.
blendOS 3 will also come with support for more containerized distributions, including AlmaLinux OS, Rocky Linux, Kali Linux, Crystal Linux, and Debian GNU/Linux. Support for Fedora Linux and Ubuntu was updated to the latest releases, such as Fedora Linux 38 and Ubuntu 23.04.
Another interesting feature in the upcoming blendOS 3 release is a tool called Assemble, which will be used for building packages and images, and it can also be used to build a remix of blendOS, as well as to support more desktop environments and window managers.
blendOS 3 is now available for public beta testing if you want to test drive its new features and improvements. You can find out more info and download the GNOME and KDE Plasma live ISO images from the announcement page.
Last updated 11 months ago
